I recently visited several Marian shines in the Ukraine. At Zarvanytsia in
West Ukraine there were 1500 buses and altogether a million people came -
many walking for days. It was very moving. The Zarvanytsia Ikon recalls a
Marian appearance in 1240 AD when Kiev and Rus-Ukraine was ravaged by
Mongols. It has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. We had an
opportunity there to present thanks to President Kutchma for Ukraine's
renunciation of nuclear weapons. I read later that the US is helping with
that. It was painful to know of the endless ravaging of Chechnya by Mongol
descendants even in this Millennial year. This seems a far worse sin as
perpetrators claim to be Christian. Yet God is all..."